Throughout history, women have found ways to end unwanted and dangerous pregnancies, even in the midst of legal crackdowns and moral panics. From Ancient Greece through early Christendom to modern times, attitudes to abortion have ebbed and flowed. In the wake of the overturning of Roe v Wade in the US in 2022, historian Mary Fissel takes a long view of abortion and its history, concluding that these moments of repression never last. 

• Guest: Mary Fissel, Professor of the history of medicine, Johns Hopkins University, author of Abortion, A History